The project is designed to enhance the possibility of obtaining eyes postmortem in order to conduct clinicopathologic studies of ocular diseases, degenerative changes and ocular manifestations of systemic diseases. This is an important effort because eyes have not been studied histopathologically in many disease processes because ocular tissue has not been available as in the case of the heart, kidney, etc. These methods of increasing the chances of clinicopathologic correlative studies have been developed. First, we have established an Eye Bank for histopathologic studies. All of the opthalamologists in Maryland have been asked to participate in the program by having their patients with poorly understood ocular diseases, surgical complications, inherited and metabolic disorders, ocular degenerative conditions, and ocular manifestations of systemic disease will their eyes for histopathologic study after their death. This is accomplished with the help of and under the auspices of the Medical Eye Bank of Maryland. The second program is to enhance the Wilmer consultation service to the medical, surgical, pediatric, and oncologic services of the hospital. We have developed a mobile examining unit which we can roll into the various areas of the hospital and conduct ophthalmologic examinations. This unit is equipped with facilities for vision testing, refraction, ophthalmoscopy, fluorescein angiography, and external and fundus photography. We, thus, can build up a backlog of data on Hopkins patients. If such a patient expires, we would then seek permission for a postmortem examination or ask the family to contribute the eyes to the Maryland Eye Bank for histopathologic study. We examine eyes obtained routinely postmortem from The Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Baltimore City Hospital and a number of hospitals in the region, via the Medical Eye Bank of Maryland. The third mechanism we have developed is to trace the origin of these eyes, determine if they have been seen by an ophthalmologist, from whom we obtain details regarding any abnormalities observed grossly and/or microscopically. By these means we have been able and will continue to be able to conduct clinicopathologic studies to fill in some of the vast gaps in our knowledge of ocular diseases.